E827 Full
E827 Full
E827 Full
POLICY STATEMENT
abstract
Breastfeeding and human milk are the normative standards for infant
feeding and nutrition. Given the documented short- and long-term medical and neurodevelopmental advantages of breastfeeding, infant nutrition should be considered a public health issue and not only
a lifestyle choice. The American Academy of Pediatrics reafrms its
recommendation of exclusive breastfeeding for about 6 months, followed by continued breastfeeding as complementary foods are introduced, with continuation of breastfeeding for 1 year or longer as
mutually desired by mother and infant. Medical contraindications to
breastfeeding are rare. Infant growth should be monitored with the
World Health Organization (WHO) Growth Curve Standards to avoid mislabeling infants as underweight or failing to thrive. Hospital routines
to encourage and support the initiation and sustaining of exclusive breastfeeding should be based on the American Academy of
Pediatrics-endorsed WHO/UNICEF Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding. National strategies supported by the US Surgeon Generals Call
to Action, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and The
Joint Commission are involved to facilitate breastfeeding practices in
US hospitals and communities. Pediatricians play a critical role in
their practices and communities as advocates of breastfeeding and
thus should be knowledgeable about the health risks of not breastfeeding, the economic benets to society of breastfeeding, and the
techniques for managing and supporting the breastfeeding dyad. The
Business Case for Breastfeeding details how mothers can maintain
lactation in the workplace and the benets to employers who facilitate this practice. Pediatrics 2012;129:e827e841
INTRODUCTION
www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2011-3552
doi:10.1542/peds.2011-3552
PEDIATRICS (ISSN Numbers: Print, 0031-4005; Online, 1098-4275).
Copyright 2012 by the American Academy of Pediatrics
Six years have transpired since publication of the last policy statement
of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) regarding breastfeeding.1
Recently published research and systematic reviews have reinforced
the conclusion that breastfeeding and human milk are the reference
normative standards for infant feeding and nutrition. The current
statement updates the evidence for this conclusion and serves as
a basis for AAP publications that detail breastfeeding management
and infant nutrition, including the AAP Breastfeeding Handbook for
Physicians,2 AAP Sample Hospital Breastfeeding Policy for Newborns,3
AAP Breastfeeding Residency Curriculum,4 and the AAP Safe and
Healthy Beginnings Toolkit.5 The AAP reafrms its recommendation
of exclusive breastfeeding for about 6 months, followed by continued
breastfeeding as complementary foods are introduced, with continuation
e827
EPIDEMIOLOGY
Information regarding breastfeeding
rates and practices in the United States
is available from a variety of government data sets, including the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
National Immunization Survey,6 the
NHANES,7 and Maternity Practices and
Infant Nutrition and Care.8 Drawing on
these data and others, the CDC has
published the Breastfeeding Report
Card, which highlights the degree of
progress in achieving the breastfeeding goals of the Healthy People 2010
targets as well as the 2020 targets
(Table 1).911
The rate of initiation of breastfeeding
for the total US population based on
the latest National Immunization Survey data are 75%.11 This overall rate,
however, obscures clinically signicant sociodemographic and cultural
differences. For example, the breastfeeding initiation rate for the Hispanic
or Latino population was 80.6%, but
for the non-Hispanic black or African
American population, it was 58.1%.
Among low-income mothers (participants in the Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants,
and Children [WIC]), the breastfeeding
initiation rate was 67.5%, but in those
2010 2020
Target Target
75.0
43.8
22.4
75
50
25
81.9
60.5
34.1
33.5
13.8
25
25.6
40
17
44.3
23.7
38.0
15.6
e828
INFANT OUTCOMES
Methodologic Issues
Breastfeeding results in improved infant and maternal health outcomes in
both the industrialized and developing
world. Major methodologic issues have
been raised as to the quality of some
of these studies, especially as to the
size of the study populations, quality of
the data set, inadequate adjustment
for confounders, absence of distinguishing between any or exclusive
breastfeeding, and lack of a dened
causal relationship between breastfeeding and the specic outcome. In
addition, there are inherent practical
and ethical issues that have precluded
prospective randomized interventional
trials of different feeding regimens.
As such, the majority of published
reports are observational cohort
studies and systematic reviews/metaanalyses.
To date, the most comprehensive
publication that reviews and analyzes
the published scientic literature that
compares breastfeeding and commercial infant formula feeding as to
health outcomes is the report prepared by the Evidence-based Practice
Centers of the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) of the US
Department of Health Human Services
titled Breastfeeding and Maternal and
Infant Health Outcomes in Developed
Countries.13 The following sections
summarize and update the AHRQ metaanalyses and provide an expanded
analysis regarding health outcomes.
Table 2 summarizes the dose-response
relationship between the duration of
breastfeeding and its protective effect.
Respiratory Tract Infections and
Otitis Media
The risk of hospitalization for lower
respiratory tract infections in the rst
year is reduced 72% if infants breastfed
exclusively for more than 4 months.13,14
Infants who exclusively breastfed for 4
% Lower Riskb
Otitis media13
Otitis media13
Recurrent otitis media15
23
50
77
Upper respiratory
tract infection17
Lower respiratory
tract infection13
Lower respiratory
tract infection15
Asthma13
Asthma13
Breastfeeding
Comments
ORc
95% CI
Exclusive BF
Compared with
BF 4 to <6 mod
Exclusive BF
0.77
0.50
1.95
0.640.91
0.360.70
1.063.59
63
Any
3 or 6 mo
Exclusive BF
6 mod
>6 mo
0.30
0.180.74
72
4 mo
Exclusive BF
0.28
0.140.54
77
1.2714.35
0.60
0.74
0.430.82
0.60.92
RSV bronchiolitis16
NEC19
74
77
>4 mo
NICU stay
0.26
0.23
0.0740.9
0.510.94
Atopic dermatitis27
27
>3 mo
0.84
0.591.19
Atopic dermatitis27
42
>3 mo
0.58
0.410.92
Gastroenteritis13,14
Inammatory bowel
disease32
Obesity13
Celiac disease31
64
31
Any
Any
Compared with
BF 4 to <6 mod
Atopic family history
No atopic family
history
Preterm infants
Exclusive HM
Exclusive BFnegative
family history
Exclusive BFpositive
family history
4.27
40
26
Exclusive BF
6 mod
3 mo
3 mo
0.36
0.69
0.320.40
0.510.94
24
52
Any
>2 mo
0.76
0.48
0.670.86
0.400.89
Type 1 diabetes13,42
Type 2 diabetes13,43
Leukemia (ALL)13,46
Leukemia (AML)13,45
SIDS13
30
40
20
15
36
>3 mo
Any
>6 mo
>6 mo
Any >1 mo
0.71
0.61
0.80
0.85
0.64
0.540.93
0.440.85
0.710.91
0.730.98
0.570.81
Gluten exposure
when BF
Exclusive BF
ALL, acute lymphocytic leukemia; AML, acute myelogenous leukemia; BF, breastfeeding; HM, human milk; RSV, respiratory
syncytial virus.
a
Pooled data.
b
% lower risk refers to lower risk while BF compared with feeding commercial infant formula or referent group
specied.
c
OR expressed as increase risk for commercial formula feeding.
d
Referent group is exclusive BF 6 months.
Necrotizing Enterocolitis
study of preterm infants fed an exclusive human milk diet compared with
those fed human milk supplemented
with cow-milk-based infant formula products noted a 77% reduction in NEC.19
One case of NEC could be prevented if
10 infants received an exclusive human
milk diet, and 1 case of NEC requiring
surgery or resulting in death could be
prevented if 8 infants received an exclusive human milk diet.19
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
and Infant Mortality
Meta-analyses with a clear denition of
degree of breastfeeding and adjusted
for confounders and other known risks
for sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS) note that breastfeeding is associated with a 36% reduced risk of
SIDS.13 Latest data comparing any versus exclusive breastfeeding reveal that
for any breastfeeding, the multivariate
odds ratio (OR) is 0.55 (95% condence
interval [CI], 0.440.69). When computed for exclusive breastfeeding, the
OR is 0.27 (95% CI, 0.270.31).20 A proportion (21%) of the US infant mortality
has been attributed, in part, to the increased rate of SIDS in infants who
were never breastfed.21 That the positive effect of breastfeeding on SIDS
rates is independent of sleep position
was conrmed in a large case-control
study of supine-sleeping infants.22,23
It has been calculated that more than
900 infant lives per year may be saved
in the United States if 90% of mothers
exclusively breastfed for 6 months.24 In
the 42 developing countries in which
90% of the worlds childhood deaths occur, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months
and weaning after 1 year is the most
effective intervention, with the potential
of preventing more than 1 million infant
deaths per year, equal to preventing 13%
of the worlds childhood mortality.25
Allergic Disease
There is a protective effect of exclusive
breastfeeding for 3 to 4 months in
e829
e830
Diabetes
Up to a 30% reduction in the incidence
of type 1 diabetes mellitus is reported
for infants who exclusively breastfed for
at least 3 months, thus avoiding exposure to cow milk protein.13,42 It has been
postulated that the putative mechanism
in the development of type 1 diabetes
mellitus is the infants exposure to cow
milk -lactoglobulin, which stimulates
an immune-mediated process crossreacting with pancreatic cells. A reduction of 40% in the incidence of type
2 diabetes mellitus is reported, possibly reecting the long-term positive
effect of breastfeeding on weight control and feeding self-regulation.43
Childhood Leukemia and
Lymphoma
There is a reduction in leukemia
that is correlated with the duration of
breastfeeding.14,44 A reduction of 20%
in the risk of acute lymphocytic leukemia and 15% in the risk of acute myeloid leukemia in infants breastfed for
6 months or longer.45,46 Breastfeeding
for less than 6 months is protective but
of less magnitude (approximately 12%
and 10%, respectively). The question of
whether the protective effect of breastfeeding is a direct mechanism of human
milk on malignancies or secondarily
mediated by its reduction of early childhood infections has yet to be answered.
Neurodevelopmental Outcomes
Consistent differences in neurodevelopmental outcome between breastfed
and commercial infant formulafed
infants have been reported, but the
outcomes are confounded by differences
in parental education, intelligence, home
environment, and socioeconomic status.13,47 The large, randomized Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention
Trial provided evidence that adjusted
outcomes of intelligence scores and
teachers ratings are signicantly
greater in breastfed infants.4850 In
PRETERM INFANTS
There are several signicant shortand long-term benecial effects of
feeding preterm infants human milk.
Lower rates of sepsis and NEC indicate
that human milk contributes to the
development of the preterm infants
immature host defense.19,5559 The benets of feeding human milk to preterm
infants are realized not only in the NICU
but also in the fewer hospital readmissions for illness in the year after
NICU discharge.51,52 Furthermore, the
implications for a reduction in incidence of NEC include not only lower
mortality rates but also lower long-term
growth failure and neurodevelopmental
disabilities.60,61 Clinical feeding tolerance is improved, and the attainment of
full enteral feeding is hastened by a diet
of human milk.51,52,59
Neurodevelopmental outcomes are improved by the feeding of human milk.
Long-term studies at 8 years of age
through adolescence suggest that intelligence test results and white matter
and total brain volumes are greater in
subjects who had received human milk
as infants in the NICU.53,54 Extremely
preterm infants receiving the greatest
proportion of human milk in the NICU
had signicantly greater scores for
mental, motor, and behavior ratings at
ages 18 months and 30 months.51,52
These data remain signicant after
adjustment for confounding factors,
such as maternal age, education, marital status, race, and infant morbidities.
PEDIATRICS Volume 129, Number 3, March 2012
MATERNAL OUTCOMES
Both short- and long-term health benets accrue to mothers who breastfeed. Such mothers have decreased
postpartum blood loss and more rapid
involution of the uterus. Continued
breastfeeding leads to increased child
spacing secondary to lactational amenorrhea. Prospective cohort studies
have noted an increase in postpartum
depression in mothers who do not
breastfeed or who wean early. 68 A
large prospective study on child abuse
and neglect perpetuated by mothers
found, after correcting for potential
TABLE 3 Recommendations on
Breastfeeding Management for
Preterm Infants
1. All preterm infants should receive human milk.
Human milk should be fortied, with protein,
minerals, and vitamins to ensure optimal
nutrient intake for infants weighing <1500 g
at birth.
Pasteurized donor human milk, appropriately
fortied, should be used if mothers own milk
is unavailable or its use is contraindicated.
2. Methods and training protocols for manual and
mechanical milk expression must be available
to mothers.
3. Neonatal intensive care units should possess
evidence-based protocols for collection,
storage, and labeling of human milk.150
4. Neonatal intensive care units should prevent the
misadministration of human milk (http://www.
cdc.gov/breastfeeding/recommendations/
other_mothers_milk.htm).
5. There are no data to support routinely culturing
human milk for bacterial or other organisms.151
months, the relative risk of rheumatoid arthritis was 0.8 (95% CI: 0.81.0),
and if the cumulative duration of
breastfeeding was longer than 24
months, the relative risk of rheumatoid arthritis was 0.5 (95% CI:
0.30.8).73 An association between
cumulative lactation experience and
the incidence of adult cardiovascular
disease was reported by the Womens
Health Initiative in a longitudinal study
of more than 139 000 postmenopausal
women.74 Women with a cumulative
lactation history of 12 to 23 months
had a signicant reduction in hypertension (OR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.840.93),
hyperlipidemia (OR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.76
0.87), cardiovascular disease (OR:
0.90; 95% CI: 0.850.96), and diabetes
(OR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.650.84).
DURATION OF EXCLUSIVE
BREASTFEEDING
ECONOMIC BENEFITS
A detailed pediatric cost analysis
based on the AHRQ report concluded
that if 90% of US mothers would comply
with the recommendation to breastfeed
exclusively for 6 months, there would be
a savings of $13 billion per year.24 The
savings do not include those related to
a reduction in parental absenteeism
from work or adult deaths from diseases acquired in childhood, such as
asthma, type 1 diabetes mellitus, or
obesity-related conditions. Strategies
that increase the number of mothers
who breastfeed exclusively for about
6 months would be of great economic
benet on a national level.
e832
The AAP recommends exclusive breastfeeding for about 6 months, with continuation of breastfeeding for 1 year or
longer as mutually desired by mother
and infant, a recommendation concurred to by the WHO78 and the Institute of Medicine.79
Support for this recommendation of
exclusive breastfeeding is found in the
differences in health outcomes of infants breastfed exclusively for 4 vs 6
months, for gastrointestinal disease,
otitis media, respiratory illnesses,
and atopic disease, as well as differences in maternal outcomes of
delayed menses and postpartum
weight loss.15,18,80
CONTRAINDICATIONS TO
BREASTFEEDING
There are a limited number of medical
conditions in which breastfeeding is
contraindicated, including an infant with
the metabolic disorder of classic galactosemia. Alternating breastfeeding
with special protein-free or modied
formulas can be used in feeding infants with other metabolic diseases
(such as phenylketonuria), provided
that appropriate blood monitoring is
available. Mothers who are positive for
human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type
I or II84 or untreated brucellosis85
should not breastfeed nor provide expressed milk to their infants Breastfeeding should not occur if the mother
has active (infectious) untreated tuberculosis or has active herpes simplex lesions on her breast; however,
expressed milk can be used because
there is no concern about these infectious organisms passing through
the milk. Breastfeeding can be resumed when a mother with tuberculosis is treated for a minimum of 2
weeks and is documented that she is
no longer infectious.86 Mothers who
develop varicella 5 days before through
2 days after delivery should be separated from their infants, but their
expressed milk can be used for feeding.87 In 2009, the CDC recommended
that mothers acutely infected with
H1N1 inuenza should temporarily be
isolated from their infants until they
are afebrile, but they can provide
expressed milk for feeding.88
In the industrialized world, it is not recommended that HIV-positive mothers
breastfeed. However, in the developing
world, where mortality is increased in
non-breastfeeding infants from a combination of malnutrition and infectious
diseases, breastfeeding may outweigh
the risk of the acquiring HIV infection
MATERNAL DIET
Well-nourished lactating mothers have
an increased daily energy need of 450
to 500 kcal/day that can be met by a
modest increase in a normally balanced
varied diet.107109 Although dietary reference intakes for breastfeeding mothers are similar to or greater than those
during pregnancy, there is no routine
recommendation for maternal supplements during lactation.108,109,110 Many
clinicians recommend the continued
use of prenatal vitamin supplements
during lactation.109
The mothers diet should include an
average daily intake of 200 to 300 mg
of the -3 long-chain polyunsaturated
fatty acids (docosahexaenoic acid
[DHA]) to guarantee a sufcient concentration of preformed DHA in the
MATERNAL MEDICATIONS
Recommendations regarding breastfeeding in situations in which the
mother is undergoing either diagnostic
procedures or pharmacologic therapy
must balance the benets to the infant
and the mother against the potential
risk of drug exposure to the infant.
There are only a limited number of
agents that are contraindicated, and
an appropriate substitute usually can
be found. The most comprehensive, upto-date source of information regarding the safety of maternal medications
when the mother is breastfeeding is
LactMed, an Internet-accessed source
published by the National Library of
Medicine/National Institutes of Health.114
A forthcoming AAP policy statement
on the transfer of drugs and other
chemicals into human milk will provide additional recommendations, with
particular focus on psychotropic drugs,
herbal products, galactagogues, narcotics, and pain medications. 115 In
general, breastfeeding is not recommended when mothers are receiving
medication from the following classes
of drugs: amphetamines, chemotherapy agents, ergotamines, and statins.
There are a wide variety of maternally
administered psychotropic agents for
which there are inadequate pharmacologic data with regard to human
milk and/or nursing infants blood
e833
HOSPITAL ROUTINES
The Sections on Breastfeeding and
Perinatal Pediatrics have published
the Sample Hospital Breastfeeding
Policy that is available from the AAP
Safe and Healthy Beginnings Web site.3,5
This sample hospital policy is based
on the detailed recommendations of
the previous AAP policy statement
Breastfeeding and the Use of Human
Milk1 as well as the principles of the
1991 WHO/UNICEF publication Tens
Steps to Successful Breastfeeding
(Table 4)121 and provides a template for
developing a uniform hospital policy for
support of breastfeeding.122 In particular,
e834
GROWTH
The growth pattern of healthy term
breastfed infants differs from the
existing CDC reference growth curves,
which are primarily based on data
from few breastfeeding infants. The
WHO multicenter curves are based on
combined longitudinal data from
healthy breastfed infants from birth
to 24 months and cross-sectional data
from 2 to 5 years of the same children
from 6 diverse geographical areas
TABLE 5 Recommendations on
Breastfeeding Management for
Healthy Term Infants
1. Exclusive breastfeeding for about 6 mo
Breastfeeding preferred; alternatively
expressed mothers milk, or donor milk
To continue for at least the rst year and
beyond for as long as mutually desired by
mother and child
Complementary foods rich in iron and other
micronutrients should be introduced at about 6
mo of age
2. Peripartum policies and practices that optimize
breastfeeding initiation and maintenance
should be compatible with the AAP and
Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Model
Hospital Policy and include the following:
Direct skin-to-skin contact with mothers
immediately after delivery until the rst feeding
is accomplished and encouraged throughout
the postpartum period
Delay in routine procedures (weighing,
measuring, bathing, blood tests, vaccines, and
eye prophylaxis) until after the rst feeding is
completed
Delay in administration of intramuscular
vitamin K until after the rst feeding is
completed but within 6 h of birth
Ensure 8 to 12 feedings at the breast every
24 h
Ensure formal evaluation and documentation
of breastfeeding by trained caregivers
(including position, latch, milk transfer,
examination) at least for each nursing shift
Give no supplements (water, glucose water,
commercial infant formula, or other uids) to
breastfeeding newborn infants unless medically
indicated using standard evidence-based
guidelines for the management of
hyperbilirubinemia and hypoglycemia
Avoid routine pacier use in the postpartum
period
Begin daily oral vitamin D drops (400 IU) at
hospital discharge
3. All breastfeeding newborn infants should be
seen by a pediatrician at 3 to 5 d of age, which
is within 48 to 72 h after discharge from the
hospital
Evaluate hydration (elimination patterns)
Evaluate body wt gain (body wt loss no more
than 7%
from birth and no further wt loss by day 5:
assess feeding and consider more frequent
follow-up)
Discuss maternal/infant issues
Observe feeding
4. Mother and infant should sleep in proximity
to each other to facilitate breastfeeding
5. Pacier should be offered, while placing infant
in back-to-sleep-position, no earlier than 3 to
4 wk of age and after breastfeeding has been
established
e835
e836
CONCLUSIONS
Research and practice in the 5 years
since publication of the last AAP policy
statement have reinforced the conclusion that breastfeeding and the use of
human milk confer unique nutritional
and nonnutritional benets to the infant
Richard J. Schanler, MD
SECTION ON BREASTFEEDING
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 20112012
Margreete Johnston, MD
Susan Landers, MD
Larry Noble, MD
Kinga Szucs, MD
Laura Viehmann, MD
STAFF
LEAD AUTHORS
Arthur I. Eidelman, MD
Sunnah Kim, MS
Ngozi Onyema, MPH
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